What Is the Military Objective of Latest Balochistan Operation? Why Now?

[Who is the Pak Army pursuing in their latest major assault upon the Baloch people? Why is that particular piece of ground being taken over? Is it to oppose any US plans for the zone? In support of American plans for the zone, or to support the Kandahar offensive by blocking the borer? Only the generals know this answer and they never answer questions.]

Islamabad: The Worker’s Party Pakistan organized a day-long protest camp at Aabpara chowk to condemn the intensification of military operations in the Dasht area of Mekran division and the simultaneous lack of government relief efforts in the same region which has been ravaged by Cyclone Phet over the past few days. Dozens of party activists manned the camp throughout the day and welcomed visitors from other political parties, student organizations, trade unions as well as ordinary citizens who came to express solidarity with the people of Mekran.

WPP Punjab general secretary Zahoor Khan said that the camp had been set up to inform working people in the twin cities as well as Punjab about state repression in Balochistan and warn of the dangers of ordinary Punjabis not voicing resistance to the oppression of the Baloch people. He said that through the late 1960s right uptil the secession of east Pakistan there was similar silence in Punjab in the face of repression against the Bengali people and that it was this silence which fueled the separatist movement. Zahoor Khan said that alienation in Balochistan is intensifying with each passing day and said that the ongoing military operation in Mekran in spite of the devastation of the Cyclone Phet is the most pointed indicator of the state’s attitude towards the Baloch people.

The WPP leadership lamented the lack of media reporting on the operation in and around the Dasht area. They said that despite promises by the federal government, the kidnappings of Baloch youth continues in earnest, and particularly in Mekran. They also noted that despite the presence of many navy vessels and other major military infrastructure on the Mekran coast, there had been no aid supplies provided to the thousands who have been displaced from their homes due to the cyclonic conditions.

Zahoor Khan also condemned the constant polemic spewed out by state functionaries about the Baloch nationalist movement being funded by ‘external forces’. He said that the Baloch demands for control over their own mineral resources, the establishment of a genuine federal system of government, and the protection of Baloch cultural heritage are genuinely popular and these sentiments must be acknowledged so as to prevent further radicalization of society.